Cruise, Couch Potatoes Catch Football Fever

There's probably a reason Tom Cruise doesn't show up on camera at WNBA games: Lots more people watch football games.

The war-like machinations of men in cleats dominated broadcast and cable TV, with NBC, ABC and ESPN all benefiting from viewers' prime-time pigskin appetite.

NBC scored 22.6 million fans for its inaugural regular-season Sunday Night Football broadcast, and another 19.2 million for the NFL's Thursday-night opener.

ABC scored 13.3 million for its Saturday night matchup between college powerhouses Ohio State and Texas.

And ESPN began its Monday Night Football regular-season era with 12.6 million viewers for the first game of a doubleheader (a game attended by the likes of Cruise, Katie Holmes and Jamie Foxx), and 10.5 million for the nightcap dismantling of the Oakland Raiders (a "game" attended by the likes of up-for-reelection California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger).

In the process, the all-sports network said it nearly outdrew a CNN-televised 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement debate between then-Vice President Al Gore and Ross Perot, a feat which really is more impressive than it sounds.

According to ESPN, the top half of its MNF bill, the Minnesota Vikings-Washington Redskins match up monitored in person by Cruise, et. al, delivered the network its biggest audience ever, and the second-largest audience in cable history behind the aforementioned Gore-Perot barnburner.

ESPN is in the first year of an eight-year MNF deal.

NBC, meanwhile, is in the first year of a six-year Sunday Night Football deal.

As expected, the broadcast-network-aired Sunday night game is now the most watched football game of the week, supplanting the venerable MNF, now on cable after a 35-year run on ESPN's over-the-air sibling, ABC.

As the ratings suggest, nobody's complaining about this changing of the football guard, least of all NBC, which saw Sunday Night Football draw even bigger numbers than MNF had for ABC in recent years. (ESPN, for its part, is drawing bigger numbers on Monday night, than it did on Sunday night.)

Overall, NBC's two football games and assorted pre-game shows accounted for five of the 10 most watched prime-time broadcasts of the TV week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research.

With ABC's Saturday Night Football grabbing seventh place, and overrun from Fox's Sunday afternoon games nabbing eighth place, gridiron-related activities accounted for fully 70 percent of the Top 10.

Armed with the most footballs, NBC easily emerged as the most watched network among all viewers (averaging 9.7 million) and demographically desirable 18-to-49-year-olds.

Last season, the NFL-free NBC finished fourth in both races.

The women of Wisteria Lane, meanwhile, have 12 more days before Desperate Housewives makes its third-season debut opposite the Denver Broncos and New England Patriots.

Might be about time for Bree to hit the gym.

Elsewhere:

Stop, if you've heard this before, but: A Labor Day college football matchup on ESPN (9.1 million viewers) was the most watched cable show of the week. (The numbers for the MNF season opener will be reflected in next week's rankings.) Hugh Laurie is not a running back. Strangely, his show, House (second place, 19.7 million), did okay anyway. The bajillionth season premiere of Fox's The Simpsons (10th place, 11.6 million) did its thing opposite Sunday Night Football. Ditto for the openers of Family Guy (14th place, 9.9 million), American Dad (21st place, 8.9 million) and The War at Home (40th place, 7.4 million). Along with House, Fox placed three drama series in the Top 20: Standoff (sixth place, 13.6 million); Prison Break (18th place, 9.3 million) and Bones (20th place, 9.1 million). The fading Vanished (39th place, 7.6 million) wasn't part of the in crowd. The much-scrutinized ABC miniseries, The Path to 9/11, beat the Fox comedies, but not NBC football on Sunday night with an estimated 13.1 million viewers; Monday's concluding installment, airing on the fifth anniversary of the terror attacks it dramatized, held steady with an estimated 12.3 million viewers. Because both parts aired sans commercials neither will be ranked by Nielsen. Katie Couric finished her first week at CBS atop the evening-news race (averaging 10.2 million viewers). On Monday, she started her second week in third place (averaging 7.5 million). Fox's Justice (29th place, 8.4 million) is no longer outdrawing its Bones lead-in. Brad Garrett's 'Til Death debut (24th place, 8.8 million) denied headline writers a shot at "Near 'Death.' " This week. Fortunately, for wordsmiths, the other new Fox sitcom, Happy Hour (44th place, 7 million), lost 20 percent of its 'Til Death lead-in, making the world safe for: "Unhappy 'Hour.' " Another new Fox show, Celebrity Duets, is croaking: 6.8 million viewers (46th place) for its Thursday installment; 4.4 million diehards (83rd place) for its Friday show. Whatchu talkin' 'bout? A 90th-place finish for the NBC movie Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Diff'rent Strokes (3.9 million). A fresh supply of criminals did their part to boost the season premieres of Fox's Cops (65th place, 5.3 million viewers for the first half-hour; 50th place, 6.37 million viewers for the second half-hour), and America's Most Wanted (51st place, 6.36 million). The second season has closed on TNT's The Closer (7.6 million); the fourth season has opened on FX's Nip/Tuck (4.9 million). A pre-dehydrated Lindsay Lohan was a draw for the Disney Channel via a Saturday night repeat of The Parent Trap (4.2 million). The Sci Fi Channel movie Sasquatch Mountain discovered 1.7 million Big Foot fans--the cable network's fifth-most watched show of the week.

In a week still heavier with reruns than football or new shows, Fox finished second in viewers (8.8 million), followed by ABC (7.5 million) and CBS (7.1 million).

The 2006-07 season officially kicks off next Monday.

Football pun intended.

Here's a look at the 10 most watched prime-time shows for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research:

1. Sunday Night Football (Indianapolis vs. New York), NBC, 22.6 million viewers
2. House, Fox, 19.7 million viewers
3. NBC NFL Thursday (Miami vs. Pittsburgh), NBC, 19.2 million viewers
4. Sunday Night Football Pre-Kickoff, NBC, 14.5 million viewers
5. NBC NFL Thursday Pre-Kickoff, NBC, 14 million viewers
6. Standoff, Fox, 13.6 million viewers
7. Saturday Night Football (Ohio State vs. Texas), ABC, 13.3 million viewers
8. The OT, Fox, 12.1 million viewers
9. Football Night in America--Part 3, NBC, 11.63 million viewers
10. The Simpsons, Fox, 11.626 million viewers